Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Jade...set apart by her power

The weather changes like Jade’s mood. Actually, Jade’s mood determines the weather. Abandoned as an infant, Jade grew up in the village of Clemming unclaimed and alone.She was found sixteen years ago along Clemming’s main path swaddled in a soiled, threadbare piece of cloth. Other than what her family provided her with, the villagers gave her only a basic education as required by law. Jade was different from the villagers, making her an outcast.She stood five feet and six inches, a good four inches above the tallest villager. Also, her skin was ghostly pale, greatly contrasting the natives’ once bronze tan. Their complexion had faded, though, with the scarcity of sunlight ever since Jade was found. Crops had suffered from this lack of sun, giving the villagers another reason to dislike her besides her physical differences. And when crops suffered, the livestock starved. When the livestock starved, the people struggled to survive. Jade had blue eyes that changed with the weather and her mood. Normally they were grey like the overcast sky, and when night approached, they darkened to a navy only a shade off black. On the rare good days, her eyes turned a fresh blue matching the sunny sky above. Disliked and avoided by the only community she knew, Jade mostly stayed angry at the world. She knew she had the power to change the weather, but she assumed that her power was, like her mood, out of her control. She was not to blame for any weather disasters.After all, the way the villagers treated her was the deciding factor of her mood and thus the weather.